Six Guidelines for Strategy Execution and Transformational Change

Take a look at just about any significant change initiative in customer service, CRM, marketing effectiveness, digital transformation, customer experience etc and you will find that the top barriers to successful implementation are do with lack of commitment from the Tops and ‘resistance to change’ from people within the organisation.

In the last post I shared David Maister’s assertion that our performance (individual, group, organisation) often does not improve because we are not willing to do what it takes over the time frame that it takes. Today, I share with you David’s insight into what it really takes to execute strategy, effect organisational change – which always involves personal change as well as organisational change.

This is a long post and I suggest that you read it only if you have an avid interest in strategy execution and/or transformational change. Or if you are wondering why it is that so few organisations have made the shift to being great with customers. And what it will take to make that shift.

Is the transition to customer-centric business like curing a fat smoker or helping an alcoholic recover?

It occurs to me that many organisations are addicted. What are they addicted to? I say they are addicted to a number of factors: a dominant ideology usually manifested in the business model; ‘bad profits’ – profits made at the expense of customers; a fixed way of being including policies, practices, and processes; the short-term fix etc.

If all business improvement is like curing a fat smoker or helping an alcoholic recover, then what actually motivates people and organisations to change?

We all know the main thing that works: a major crisis! If revenues drop off sharply, it’s amazing how quickly businesses can act to deal with known inefficiencies and bad habits they could have tackled years ago.

… when the first heart attack comes, it’s amazing how many people suddenly find the self-discipline to start living right.

Does David Maister have any guidelines for us on how to effect personal-organisational change without waiting for that ‘heart attack’ to show up and force us to change? He does.

Six guidelines for strategy execution and transformational change

1. Get that it is about a permanent change in lifestyle

In my last post I mentioned that I worked for an organisation that carried out a quarterly NPS rain dance. Everyone went through the motions to get it out of the way quickly and get back to business as usual. To take it seriously, to do what was really necessary at levels-functions of the organisation showed up as being too much effort, too disruptive.

Here’s what David Maister says:

A major source of failure in implementing sensible business strategies is that we underestimate how much effort is truly required to bring about significant improvement.

Individuals and organisations frequently fail to incorporate the new activities into their daily lives. Strategic actions are viewed as special, separate events rather than regular business activities. In other words, there’s real life, and then there’s the diet.

It is about routines , not special events.

My experience since 1999, working on helping organisations shift towards a customer-centric way of doing business, including smarter marketing-selling-service, resonates with David’s words. The customer centric orientation has to be weaved into the very fabric of the organisation through it daily practices – routines – such that these practices become so taken for granted that they become invisible.

2. You must change the scorecards

There is a world of difference between playing a game where one has no skin in the game. And playing a game where one has something that really matters (like one’s reputation or wellbeing) is at stake in the game. Let’s listen to David Maister:

If strategy is to be lived and achieved, it must bepublicly tracked, measured and monitored.

We all forgive ourselves too easily. We all find it quite easy to live with guilt. Even a high level of guilt doesn’t always change people. However, embarrassment, even in small doses, can be far more effective.

3. Leadership: get serious or get out of the way

One of my biggest issues with the whole customer bandwagon and business advice in general is that it panders to the Tops and Middles. That is to say the hidden assumption (which serves the interest of those seeking to sell to the Tops and Middles) is that Tops and Middles are perfect – do not need to change their way of showing up in the organisation. And the only obstacles to strategy execution, organisational change, and customer-centricity, are the Bottoms. What does David Maister say given that he has had lots of experience working with the Tops:

Organisations often rush to figure out how the troops need to change in order to live the new standards. However, this is not the first task.

If an organisation’s leaders want their people to believe that a new strategy is being followed, they must establish credibility by proving that they are prepared to change themselves: how they act, measure, and reward.

David Maister goes on to say that he can share countless examples of “failure to do this”. And gives a great example of the instructions he received from senior management prior to running training for managers in the company:

“Please don’t raise the topic of how we ourselves manage these middle managers. We’re not ready to discuss the terrible job we do at that. Keep their attention on what they could do better. We want them to change first.”

4. Principles are more effective than tactics

One of my biggest issues with the whole Customer (service, CRM, VoC, customer experience, loyalty etc) conversation is that it shows up for me as just tactics. That is to say that under all the hype and ideology of customer-centricity and employee engagement there lies a selfish concern with interests of the enterprise: the realm of expediency not principle. What light does David Maister shed on this?

.. successful implementation of a strategy requires both sustained commitment over time and broad participation across the whole organisation. Strategies in business, like diets and alcohol recovery, are implemented much more effectively when the ideas are presented as matters of principle, not just as matters of expediency.

If strategic rules are justified only in terms of outcomes … the diet will always be seen as a punishment on the way to an uncertain and possibly unattainable reward…

If … diet achieves the force of moral principle (“Treating clients and employees with respect is the right thing to do”), the odds are significantly higher that successful implementation will be achieved.

Managers who get things done are people who are viewed as having an ideology. Their people believe that they believe in something …. buy-in and excellent implementation result from a sense of not wanting to let people down.

5. People must volunteer

Looking into and beyond the whole field of change management and what do you see? I see that it exists to deal with ‘resistance to change’. How successful is the change management industry when it comes to dealing with ‘resistance to change’? I say that it’s effectiveness is questionable. What advice does David Maister have for us?

To achieve any goal, you must really want the goal.

A self-improvement program is successful and sustainable only when the individual chooses to to it for himself … The motivations must be intrinsic, because the essence of successful strategic change is not technique, but will …….. you can call it determination.

.. the single biggest barrier to making change is the feeling that “it’s OK so far.” People don’t disagree that the future state of being a nonsmoker would be beneficial, but they resist when they are told that they have to do it.

One of the leader’s roles is to act as a coach, drawing people’s attention to imperfections in the status quo .… asking whether things could actually be better, and questioning whether the desired change is both achievable and desirable…..

6. People must get on or off the bus

If “people must volunteer” showed up as being naive and idealistic for you then this guideline is likely to speak to your concern. David has keen sense of the pragmatic:

Every individual can, and must make a personal choice. But then the organisation must decide how to respond to those individual choices. For an organisation, strategy cannot be what “most of us, most of the time” do.

As all married people who diet know, it’s hard enough to stay the course and resist temptation when you are both attempting to do the right thing. It’s well nigh impossible if those around you continue to indulge and tempt you with food, alcohol etc.

… we cannot force others to do what we want. We can … protect those who have chosen to participate; doing so may require ridding the firm of those who refuse to come on board.

People have a desperate need for the mutual support …. that comes from joining in a common cause. The need to help each other through the tough times … instead of being part of a forgiving culture that keeps discouraging extra effort (“Oh, that’s OK, you can skip exercise today. You deserve a break.”).

Final words of advice on managing the process of change

It occurs to me that too many Tops and Bottoms live in the world of McDonald’s. They decide that they want to improve customer service, focus on the customer experience, build stronger relationships, generate growth through effective use of digital technologies etc – and they want it NOW!

Here’s David Maister’s sage advice based on lived, first hand, experience of making-sustaining transformational change:

Like alcoholic recovery, it is a process that requires you first to make a lifetime commitment, and then you take it one day at a time.

The key is to manage with a philosophy of “It’s OK to stumble; it’s only a sin if you don’t get back on the program.” The primary goal of the beginning stage of a change program is to get people to believe that it is doable and that all we are asking is that they try. This means early successes.

All that wise leader …. talk about is the next step. And they enthusiastically celebrate each small accomplishment. They focus on requiring improvement, not on requiring excellence …

Managing a weight loss program means you stop talking about the ultimate goal….. if someone says to me: “Let’s focus on losing one pound in a week, David. Do you think you can do that? That doesn’t sound impossible, does it?”

Good trainers know that life-changing improvements can and does fail by rushing to either of two extremes. The first extreme establishes overtly ambitious or time-consuming improvement goals, leading to frustration and abandonment of the program. The other extreme fails to establish any pressure to improve, allowing people to pretend they plan to get on the plan, but not just today.

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Author: Maz Iqbal

Experienced management consultant working at the intersection of strategy, customer, and technology. Combine a tendency to think strategically with a penchant for getting my hands dirty at the coalface of implementation.
View all posts by Maz Iqbal

Hi Maz,
Every time I see the words ‘transformational change’ I wonder how many ‘transformation’ programmes have been successful and if their introduction is not an example of a too little too late or a big ego driven exercise from leadership.

Trumpeting a new transformational change programme probably scares many people into not doing very much or resisting any changes due to past experience, trust and fears for their own safety and job security.

Also, isn’t transformation where you get to not where you start?

Personally, I’m more of a fan of transformation by taking a 1,000 little steps. Is this just continuous improvement? Probably. However, I would argue that it is probably more successful and delivers more sustainable results.

Hello James
Given that we are beings-in-the-world and thus beings-with-others-in-the-world, I have found that when I change myself I change the world. When I am more patient with my wife, I find she is more patient with me and the children. When I inject laughter and fun into the house, I find that my children and wife are called to laughter, and there is lots of laughter and fun in the house.

In the world of business, I have found that being a stand for client-centricity has rubbed off on some of my colleagues. Being a stand for integrity – action matches words – I have found that many clients have changed their listening of consultants. And so forth.